Proselytising amid the poverty

Cambodia's relative religious freedoms have encouraged Christian
groups to set up shop in the Kingdom, but they risk creating 'rice
Christians' when they preach to the poor

The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia/September 3, 2008

By Sebastian Strangio

Elders Jones and Henderson cycle calmly through Phnom Penh's rush-hour
traffic, Bible bags strapped to their backs, white cotton shirts
snapping in the breeze. It is becoming a familiar sight in Cambodia:
clean-cut young missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints - better known as the Mormon Church - taking to the
streets to spread the Word of the Lord.

As missionaries, Jones and Henderson are awake at five and proselytise
until eight in the evening, seven days a week. Both are nearing the
end of their gruelling two-year stints in Phnom Penh, but look back on
their time here with no regrets. "My purpose is to welcome others to
come into the Word of Christ," Henderson said. "I wouldn't be here if
I didn't love it."

He said their work is helped by the natural curiosity of the Cambodian
people. "There's a lot of curiosity. There's a great number of people
who are willing to hear the message that we are sharing," Henderson
said.

Elder Jones, an Idaho native, agreed Cambodians' friendliness was an
advantage for the church, which was founded in the US in 1830 and has
since grown into a global religion with over 13 million adherents.

"We just go and talk to them," he said. "The Lord is in charge, and
he's taking care of things."

With a local membership of over 8,000, Mormonism has led a significant
demographic shift towards Christianity in Cambodia. According to the
US State Department's 2007 International Religious Freedom Report,
Christians make up around two percent of Cambodia's population
(approximately 282,000 people), dispersed amongst 100 organisations.

Compared to more restrictive neighbouring countries like Vietnam and
Laos, Cambodia has a relatively open climate for missionary work.

The law requires all religious groups to register with the Ministry of
Cults and Religions if they wish to build places of worship or conduct
religious activities. But according to the Religious Freedom report,
"there is no penalty for failing to register, and in practice some
groups do not." Only 900 of Cambodia's 2,400 churches are officially
registered with the government.

Dok Narin, undersecretary of state at the ministry, said the
constitution guaranteed freedom of religion and that there are few
laws to regulating the day-to-day activities of missionaries. "We
cannot control them, as we don't have any special laws," he said,
adding that more regulation was desirable but difficult to balance
with a commitment to religious freedom. "The ministry is planning laws
to exercise more controls on religion, but we are afraid that it may
affect the constitution," he said.

"Rice Christians"

In February 2003, the government imposed a ban on door-to-door
proselytising, but the continuing lack of firm regulations has created
fresh temptations. Cambodia has long been plagued by rumours that
Christians were exploiting the nation's poverty to attract converts -
a problem Christian leaders say goes to the heart of doing missionary
work here.

"When a country like Cambodia opens up, you get greater freedoms to
operate," said Vernon Elvish, a missionary with the Jehovah's
Witnesses, who arrived here in 1992.

"In one way that's a good thing, but then you can also get the bad
side of that freedom coming in," he said, adding that rumours of
exploitation were hard to verify, but taken seriously.

"We're very conscious of making 'rice Christians'," he said, referring
to those who change religions on a material incentive. "Our
organisation is purely a religious organisation.... We don't even
teach English here, so if they want to become a Jehovah's Witness,
it's because they want to become a Jehovah's Witness, not because
they're getting any material benefit out of it."

David Manfred, a missionary with the Christian & Missionary Alliance
(CAMA), founded in Cambodia in 1923, said the country's openness made
it tempting for some missionaries and that "rice Christians" were a
constant concern.

"My own sense is that some groups have probably come here and, out of
zeal, have used methodologies that we wouldn't feel comfortable with,"
Manfred told the Post. "There has been a tendency ... to inflate
[conversion] numbers, or to count them differently. It's actually
something we work quite hard to try and avoid, because that would not
be the kind of faith that we're looking for."

Mormon mission President Robert Winegar said the church spent between
US$400,000 and $1 million per year on charity and development
programs, but that such activities were tightly sealed off from its
religious work.

"In all of these [projects] we never talk about the church," he said,
adding that the church asked more of its members than its members
asked of the church. "Not only do we not use poverty as a lure to join
the church; we invite members to donate [a] 10 percent [tithe] to help
the church grow," he said.

Freelance missionaries

Some missionaries have gone further, distancing themselves from the
large churches they say have made Christians dependent on foreign
church money. Michael Freeze, a Baptist missionary who has worked in
Cambodia since 2000, said that after four years of running a church in
Phnom Penh, he became disillusioned and now focuses on small Bible
study sessions.

"It became apparent to me that [Cambodians] were coming to church but
not wanting to take part in building the church," he said. "That's why
I no longer want to have a big structure and have them think that
'this is the Western money train, I want to get on board'."

An independent Khmer-American pastor, who declined to be named because
of his associations with several organisations in Cambodia, agreed
that the massive economic gap between Westerners and most Cambodians
turned proselytising into an ethical minefield.

While outright bribes were rare, he said that economic dependency was
hard to avoid.

"It's good to give, but you have to be very careful how you give. You
come to Cambodia with SUVs and tonnes of rice, and that's virtually
bribery," he said.

The pastor said the financial concerns of some large churches had
compromised their aims.

"If you build your foundation on money, religion will crumble," he
said, singling out the Mormons for criticism.

"I believe that churches have made a lot of mistakes in terms of their
focus on finance and on getting their numbers up. That's where the
church of Mormon comes in. They know how to work the system.... But
all the money in the world can't buy God."

CAMA's Manfred said that in terms of building local capacity and
avoiding the pitfalls of dependency, the principles of effective
missionary activity were similar to the principles of effective aid
work. "I think that the use of money is an area where we have to be
hugely careful, so that these kinds of patron-client relationships are
not established," he said.

Given the lack of government oversight, Manfred added, some Christian
groups imposed a regime of regulation on themselves. CAMA has
associated itself with the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia, an
umbrella organisation representing a large number of missions, which
has a stringent code of conduct prohibiting the use of material
"enticements".

"We limit the amount of money coming from the outside in terms of
direct support [to churches]," he said.

"My problem with this is when they try to wean themselves off, there's
already a bit of dependency, and they'll often just look for another
patron."

But Freeze said these mistakes were often a result of a lack of
understanding of the local context, something that could be overcome
through in-country experience. "Most groups have genuine heart," he
said. "But a lot of the problem here is a misunderstanding of
culture."

To see more documents/articles regarding this group/organization/subject
click here.